Stupid things the government spent money on during the shutdown

posted by Michael Bastasch
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3 years ago

The government is shut down and thousands of government workers have been sent home. But will it save any money?

The shutdown in during the Clinton Presidency cost taxpayers about $1.5 billion in 22 days. According to IHS Global Insight, the shutdown could cost the U.S. economy $1.6 billion per week — and NBC News reported that the shutdown would cost $12.5 million per hour.

Here are seven things that the government, in all its wisdom, has opted to do during the current shutdown.

1. Federal agencies created new websites to tell visitors that they don’t have enough funding to run their old websites.

Federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Park Service, have created new splash pages to tell visitors that they don’t have enough money or manpower to maintain their normal websites. The Internal Revenue Service website will be active, but won’t be updated — at least they’re not auditing you.

According to USA Today, even Capitol Hill’s Twitter feed will be impacted. The newspaper reports that, “Twitter followers received a message from the architect of the U.S. Capitol proclaiming certain accounts will be inactive. A message posted on first lady Michelle Obama’s Twitter account said tweets would be limited ‘due to Congress’s failure to pass legislation to fund the government.’”

2. The feds shut down the parking lot of Mt. Vernon, but not the park itself.

In another brilliant move, the National Park Service closed off the parking lot to Mt. Vernon, the home of the country’s first president George Washington. Since Mt. Vernon is privately owned, the NPS can’t shut down the park, so they instead opted to shut down the parking lot at the popular tourist attraction.

The news came from one brave man on Twitter who has been tweeting to the world all day about how the parking lot (well, at least one parking lot at the time this report was being written) was closed, despite Mt. Vernon officials saying it was open.

The National Park Service has actually had someone remove the handles off all the well pumps along the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal that runs 184 miles from Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland, according to sources. The NPS has also stationed officers in the park to make sure bikers don’t ride down closed bike paths and that no one can come near the scenic waterway.

Mike Nardolilli, president of the C&O Canal Trust, said in an email: “As you may be aware, our Federal Government has shut down for an indeterminate amount of time. What you may not have realized, however, is that the closure of the Federal Government means the closure of the C&O Canal National Historical Park and all other National Parks.”

However, rebellious bikers seem to be taking matters into their own hands and are using the closed trails due to lax enforcement.